Bible Guys Classics: Proverbs 4

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hello, everybody, I just want to pause and say I am thrilled that you're here. I don't know about Jeff, but I am. Thinking about it. We'll see, we'll see how good I guess they are today listeners. Wait, what's going to change your mind? What do they have to do? What do you mean we'll see? I don't Chris, If I tell them now, then how you know? Then they're just going to manipulate the whole thing. Yeah, that's interesting. So we're just gonna let it play play out. Well, hopefully we'll get on your good side for one. I'm thrilled. We'll see. So welcome to the Bible Guys. We are going to kick off this segment with a social medium in it, which is a great way to start. See there they go right there, right, that's how they're gonna That's how they did it, right there. This is going to inform you how you feel about them. Yes, how great? That's great. Okay, even though it's only four people, yeah three, oh yeah. It is only three. That one that has like two half loops is the three. Okay, I got it all right? What you want to read the first one? The first one is from Ocean Golf. Two. Oh, that's not what a person's what a cool name? Hi? Ocean golf too? Hey ocean hey? Oh it says so right on my birth certificate. What kind of what is ocean golf? Yeah? Well, you know what, it's a person who probably travels. I have a good friend who's an attorney who literally travels all throughout the year to go to all the golf courses. Okay, and and golfing on the ocean maybe ocean, but not not only like golf's on the ocean. This is the second iteration, it's ocean golf. Two. Oh right, So that's that's impressive. You know I used to ocean golf. No, I got back to it. Ocean golf too. There's another golfer out there. Yeah, okay, anyways, ocean golf too. So can you believe somebody gave us this show? Right? That's our listeners are going? What now? Okay, here we go. I love listening to your podcast. I appreciate the way you teach, making the word understandable and relatable. I have learned so much from both of you. Thank you for touching on the subject of gifts. Remember when we talked about spiritual gifts. Yeah, this is a topic. It's not often shared, and for you two to put your personal test stories and testimonies to these things is more affirming. Thanks. Oh that's very nice. Thanks. Oh yeah, thanks, big, oh big big og O G two O G. Yeah the O G two there so fun. Yeah, so, hey, appreciate you saying that the whole goal for you know, unpacking God's word is to make it understandable because it's supposed to be for application. That's right. And yeah, spiritual gifts is something that we probably even need to talk about even more. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah. So okay, So this next one is from DARCYG. DARCYG. Yeah is that like her rap name. Well, she's married to Ocean G Ocean d Og. Yeah, yeah, all right. She says, thank you Bible guys exclamation mark. You're so insightful to bring the Bible to life and application to our lives, especially when it's a little deep or confusing to me. Thank you, Darcy. That's a very big compliment. Yeah. Well, and the good news is it's only when it's a little deep, because if it went any deeper we wouldn't be able to handle. Yeah, we're it's just a little deep. Right, that's so good. And then Carrie d says listening every morning and I love the games, and that you don't take each other too seriously. Thank you for this podcast. Oh that's actually a great compliment. It makes me feel better about the first six or seven minutes of. It was only three, but it felt like seven. Right, No, yeah, but sometimes right, we can get up there to the seven race. I bet you there's people who they're so either they're in a rush or they're the anti. Person, anti fun fun. I'm not interested in the person of lawn. Yeah, they're listening to the podcast yelling the kids riding buying their bicyclist. That's so funny. But he's gonna get you and your little dog too. I'll get you, my pretty But I bet you they fast forward it. That's there are some people probably you know. Oh, I had a guy tell me that, Yeah, I told him find a different podcast. Right, But I did have a guy tell me that he skips the fun stuff. Yeah, well, I mean it's yeah, it is is sometimes too silly for people. Well, the Bible says that a merry heart does good like medicine. Oh, that is good. That's what it says. That is good, I know in the Bible. And joy uh has a physical uh and mental and emotional reaction to the body. So laugh it's almost like what the Bible was saying. I know, it's it's it's actually when people laugh, it actually does the heart good, the emotional state. So yeah, laughter and joy. Something releases positive hormones on a little bit. Yeah. And interesting though, I mean, you could take something as simple as that here we turned into you know, to turn this six minutes seven minute, a little you know, segment of laughter into the fact that God created us that way. Yeah. Right, So how about that. Is, if you and I don't get to laugh while we're working, then we don't get to laugh because. We're always what we always do. Yeah, so we have a lot of fun, right, and then the two of us together is it's not this way with everybody that we know, but the two of us together, give us a few minutes and we're going to start. Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. But we take our faith very seriously. We take God's word very seriously. We just don't take ourselves too seriously. So the fact that. People recognize that is kind of a cool thing. Which, by the way, there's way less stress in your life. If you don't take yourself too seriously. I agree, right, Yes, I agree completely. And you can still put forth a great effort, you know, in life dedication. You can put forth everything and still not take yourself too seriously. Oh yeah, I think you can achieve a lot. I think you can. We have not to brag, but I mean we've We've done a lot of really amazing things that God's let us be a part of. And you know, so it's not that we don't take the task Got's given us seriously, right, It's just we have fun along the way. Yeah. When I was working as a salesman, I sold a lot of different things early on, young, you know, in my career, and when I was making atten legitimate things, I couldn't sell if it wasn't legitimate. But there was one job where they asked me to do shady things and I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand it. But anyway, the bottom line is is when I was making a ton of money, just an absolute gross amount of money. I was so consumed with sales. It took over my life. I was so stressed. And my wife was like, who are you? And that's all I was doing, was just thinking about, you know, the sale and the money and the angle, and just that's all I did. And she was like, she's like, yeah, the. Money's nice, but holy cow. Yeah that was early on. That was our first year of marriage. It almost got me. Yeah, speaking of almost getting you, go ahead, good, I don't know. I have nothing. I have nothing here. Yeah, well I don't. To be honest, I didn't read ahead of What we're talking about. Is Solomon talking to his son. The father's wise advice. Yeah, okay, how about this. You know, now that I'm older, I tell my son, who's at work right now, not to pursue money as the first priority. And speaking of that today, we're going to read from Proverbs chapter four. So I had to create something and Solomon, yeah, I've given wives advice to his children. But to be honest with you, even though I just created that cheesy transition, that is the honest truth. My son and I talked about this just last night. Oh wow, it won't make money. The number one thing yeah. Yeah. He was actually saying like he's like, I'm not going to work sixty hours a week, and he was talking about his job and he says. I'm not going to work super super hard. To hate my life. He's like, to have no life. And I was like, good for you. I was like, where'd you learn that from. He's like you yeah, yeah, okay, well well then mental life. This is a wise father giving advice to his children. Yes, just like just like Arbog giving whise, either wisdom of zar Bag giving his own wisdom to his son. Yeah. Yeah, So here we go the Solomon of allmen? Yeah, yep, right there, same, same, same, yep. I can't which one am I looking at? Here? Am I looking at im? Looking at Solomon? So Proverbs chapter four and as I mentioned before, there's thirty one chapters in the Book of Proverbs, and you could read one proverb every day. And the proverbs are written like little slogans, maybe two or three sentences that are are very memorable and practical wisdom for daily living snippets. Why is slogans? Yes, why sayings? That's why I like, why I come why sayings? Yes, that's very wise. Yes, my children listen to your father. When he corrects you, pay attention and good judgment, for I'm giving you good guidance. Don't turn away from my instructions. For I too was once my father's son, tenderly loved as my mother's only child. My father taught me. Take my words to heart. Follow my commands, and you will live. Get wisdom, develop good judgment. Don't forget my words or turn away from them. Don't turn your back on wisdom, for she will protect you. Love her, and she will guide you. Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do. And whatever else you do, develop good judgment. If you prize wisdom, she will make you great. Embrace her and she will honor you. She will place a lovely wreath on your head. She will present you with a beautiful crown. My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. I'll teach you wisdom's ways and lead you in straight paths. When you walk, you won't be held back. When you run, you won't stumble. Take hold of my instructions, don't let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life. Don't do as the wicked do, and don't follow the path of evildoers. Don't even think about it. Don't go that way, Turn away and keep moving. For evil people can't sleep until they've done their evil deed for the day. They can't rest until they've caused someone to stumble. They eat the food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they're stumbling over. My child, pay attention to what I say, Listen carefully to my words, don't lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to. Their whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Avoid all perverse talk and stay away from crop speech. Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Stay on the safe path, don't get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil. Twenty seven Wyse saying. Yeah and so the one that stands out to me is Solomon says, guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. You know, I know you've heard this saying when people say listen to your heart or follow your heart, what's wrong with. That saying it's wrong? Why is it wrong? Because your heart will always lie to you. It's a seaful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Yeah? And now that's another proverb. That's Jeremiah. Oh, that's Jeremiah. Sounds like it's in a proverb. Because because actually Solomon doesn't he say to that and proverbs? Really? Yes, you sure, I'm positive? Huh positive? Huh positive? All right, Well, I do know this. I do know that all throughout the scripture sprinkled in when it talks about the heart, it refers to it as the seat of emotions, and it is the thing that people want to follow. But what he's saying here is he's saying, guard your heart above all else. And that's a statement because if you're not supposed to necessarily listen to your heart, but you're supposed to guard your heart. Yeah, you know, it's just it's a wise piece of advice where Solomon says, above all else, and you think to yourself, what really, of all the pieces of advice that you have in all thirty one chapters, above all else, the one thing we're supposed to do is guard our heart. And I think there's so many implications that you can unpack. I heard a message one time that talked about you know, how to guard your heart? And actually it was a devotional by a guy who you may remember this. Do you remember when we did that huge baptism at Jimmy Johnsfield. Yes, we've done a few, the one that I was with with you at, Yes, a couple of years ago. Do you remember on. The day of in the morning of, there was a guy that was dying member of cancer. I remember we shot a video and we said in too him and his name was Jerry. It was him, Oh, and he just he passed away. But this was his favorite verse in all the Bible. And so he did a devotional one time at a men's Bible study I was at, and this is his favorite verse. And he got up there and talked about how the heart is deceitful, but he also talked about how God wants you to protect the emotions that He's given to you. He wants you to be emotionally stable. He wants you to be you know, your emotions are a good thing towards God. Just don't let them deceive your you know, lead. You down the wrong path. It was really good and I just remember him talking about that, and I just remember, Wow, that's that's really wise. So he says, guard your heart above all else. And he says getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do. In the same chapter, right though, those be the two things. And so it's like he's contrasting the truth, the truth your heart. If you follow your heart, your heart will lie to you over and over and over and over again. How many times have you heard people who clearly make a heart decision, They just choose a thing based on what they want or what they see, or what their desire is, you know, they're in love with being in love or whatever. And then later on they say, what was I thinking? Right? Right? That's usually that you weren't. You weren't thinking you were feeling in that moment, right. And so this is where so he says, get all the wisdom you can get right right, that there's nothing more important than getting all the wisdom you can get. It's the wisest thing you can do. Whatever else you do, develop good judgment. So wisdom and good judgment, those will drive your life. And as you read through the Book of Proverbs, he's telling his children over and over and over again, a wise person is going to have success. A wise person is going to have peace, A wise person is going to have good relationships. A wise person is going to have plenty of resources. A wise person is going to have great leadership. And he just goes on and on and on. It's it's literally the fountain of your life. The other side, he warns over and over, don't follow you your heart. Don't just, you know, indulge your desires, those kinds of things, because they're going to destroy your life. So he says, guard your heart blah blah. El's because it determines the course of your life. And he says, don't don't don't let the wicked, you know, lead you down the path of evil doers. Right, don't even think about it going their way, Turn away and keep on moving. He's saying, avoid them at all costs. In the same comparison, in the same way that our heart and mislead us emotionally wicked people can also influence us. Yeah, they usually grab a hold of our hearts. Right, Hey, wouldn't this be fun? Wouldn't it be funny? Yeah, you know, just just do what you want to do. Life short. I get think when you. Said those two phrases, I was reminded of my youth. Wouldn't this be fun? Wouldn't this be funny? There were so many things that I've done that were that were destruct destructive, And we used to vandalize and and and do goofy things, harmful things, right, you know, throw ice blocks at moving cars as they drove by, denting in the side of their doors and then running in the snow. It's terrible, like terrible, And we thought that was funny. Now now, granted most of the cars in Youngstown, Ohio were russ buckets anyway. Right, Well, that makes it better. It makes it better. At least you weren't in a nice town, right Yeah. But I mean, like, the mentality in my neighborhood. Was just wouldn't it be fun? Wouldn't it be funny? Yeah? But no consideration of other people. No, And I know that sounds terrible, but if my mom's listening to this, She's probably like, Chrissy, we didn't have that mentality. It's like, well no, we did. You know why because it was with all the neighborhood kids, right, and they all thought it right. It was that kind of mentality. It was sort of sort of wild how people can lead you down the path emotionally, right, this would be fun, this would be funny. Wow, that was well. He warns often about friends, and you know, eventually he gets to like violence and all these kinds of things. But it's interesting. They eat the food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. And sometimes if you take the strongest word he says, you go, oh, that's not my friends, but you take all the words before that, right. Usually he's building up to the worst thing, And that's what sin does. Sin normally doesn't start off at the worst place. It starts off at a simpler, gentler place, more fun place, or whatever, and builds up to the worst thing. And that's kind of how he builds his argument. So he warns often that friends can take in the wrong direction, or the other one is surround yourself with wise people. So he constantly throughout the Book of Proverbs just saying get wise counselors, get wise people around you. He says the why. If you walk with the wise, you'll be wise. If you walk with the foolish, you'll be foolish. My dad used to say all the time, you either are right now or as soon shall be just like the crowd you run with. And that is very consistent through if you read all thirty one chapters in the Book of Proverbs, it's very consistent with the wisest man in the world's view of the importance of friendships. You're going to be just like the people you hang out with. So if you're looking right now and your marriage is important to you, you look around and all your friends are getting divorced right now. Just know that's going to become a temptation for you at some point when you get ticked off and when you're struggling, your friends, their advice is going to be, just follow your heart, don't you want to do? Oh, you don't have to put up that junk. Right, And they didn't hang in, they didn't do the hard work of getting past that bad day. They bailed, And it's going to be a stronger temptation for you to bail if your friends. If all of your friends are going into debt and getting you know, buying a house that's too much, buying a car that's too much, getting one more toy, constantly going on another vacation, you're going to start feeling like you're not really living unless you do the same things your friends do. Right. So, But on the other hand, if you have friends that are are doing the right thing, they're managing their finances right, they're working on their marriage, what's going to happen is you're going to wind up doing similar things. You become just like the people you hang out with over time. Yeah, and you know you mentioned that phrase that said they drink the wine of violence. Think about the significance of what it meant to eat and drink with someone in the first century, and obviously this was well before the first century, right, So to sit down in someone's home was a great honor. You were partaking. Every time that you sat down in a circle around a campfire, for instance, they would take a wine, they would take the cup of wine, and they would pass it around, which is why Jesus said, let this cup pass from me. In other words, I don't want to partake, right. That was his You know, he was talking the cup of bitterness and the cup of sorrow and death and going to the cross, and he was using the symbolism of that. I think it's the same symbolism that Solomon's using. He's saying, Hey, you're sharing in their life. You're you're you're accepting their their fellowship, You're you're joining with them in friendship. And so you're drinking their wine. But guess what, you're drinking the wine of violence because their life is wrapped up in violence and it's and so what you were saying is true. It starts off subtle and then it gets extreme. Well think about how subtle it is to just. Be merry and eat and drink with somebody. It seems harmless, right, But what he's saying is you're joining yourself with somebody. You're you're aligning with them, right. And you're gonna become like them? Right. I really like the UH Life Application Study Bible. This little chart right here where it says UH a strategy for effective living, and it lists four steps and it says number one is get wisdom. Number two moral application, number three, practical application number four Effective living. Isn't that great? Yeah? It begins with God's wisdom. It requires moral application, which requires practical application, which results in effective living. Isn't that great? It's a great formula. So God's wisdom has a moral application, which is sort of what we said at the very beginning during the social media segment where she said, hey, thank you for the practical application. Oh, that's what God's word is supposed to be. I remember Andy Stanley did a series called There's an App for That. And you know, back when iPhones were just coming on the scene, there was a big commercial that said, hey, if you have any there's an app for that. Need a taxi, there's an app for that. Right, you know, want food delivered your house, There's an app for that. And I remember he did a series called There's an App for that. And what he was meaning was, no matter what verse you read, there's an app for that. Yeah, there's an application. Yeah, yep, which is really cool. Yeah. So he says, where was this, I just saw it. Oh. In verse thirteen, he says, take hold of my instructions, don't let them go guard them, for they are the key to life. Earlier he had just said listen to you know. Verse ten, he said my child listened to me and do as I say, and you'll have a long, good life. I'll teach you wisdom's ways and lead you in straight pass. When you walk, you won't be held back. When you run, you won't stumble. Take hold of my instructions and don't let them go. Guard them for their the key to life. That is, I think the desire of every good parent that has any kind of wisdom is that you want to You look at your kids and you say, man, if you would just take my advice on the skip all the dumb stuff I learned the hard way, and just do this, and you can give your kids an advance and an opportunity to jump ahead of everybody else. But he literally says, if you guard my instructions, they're the key to life, which is different from guard your heart above all else that determines the course of your life. Right. And so I was just thinking the other day I've done this a couple of times. But the other day we sat down and I gave to you know, I've got a few young adults, my three kids, and I gave them a budget framework with percentages of these are the wise percentages. If you stay within these percentages on how on you know your giving, and on your housing, and on your autos. And on all these things. You stay there, it doesn't matter if you stay in those percentages, it doesn't matter how much money you're making, you will always have enough. And I told them, I said, I wish somebody had given this to me when I was a kid, right or when I was a young person. And I'm telling you, you could avoid so many of the mistakes that Bonnie and I made early on if you would choose to stay inside of this framework. And there's a lot of that as you see through the Book of Proverbs where he's like, hey, just take it from me. If you just could understand, I've already done all the dumb stuff, So just do the wise stuff I'm telling you. And it's the key to life. And I think you know, young people have that opportunity. There are every once in a while, did you have any friends that seemed to get out ahead of all the rest of you, And it was just because they made better choices than the rest of you. Guys. I had a couple of friends that were that way. And I had one friend in particular. His dad was very, very disciplined and very kind of character driven and made good choices, and it seemed like right out of the gate, my friend was very much adopted that I tended to learn things the hard way a lot of times, but I had a friend that seemed to get way out ahead, and it was because, you know, he listened to his parents. So there's something to that, the young people listening. They listen to your parents. They're smarter than you are. Yeah, for sure, they've been around longer than you. Yeah that's right. Well, hey, that's great. That's great. There's a lot of sermons pulling from this chapter. So that's our time for today, so hopefully we'll see you next time on the Bible. Guys,